Museums Look Into the Future of Military History
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 25, 2008; C01
The gray paint is chipped on the World War II anti-aircraft gun. The finish is worn on some of the display cases. The crude video and interactive features date to the 1980s.
The exhibits at the National Museum of the United States Navy are housed in a century-old gun factory at the Washington Navy Yard, and many seem as dated as Adm. George Dewey's faded hat and gold-buttoned dress coat in a case on a wall.
But drive 35 miles south to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. There, visitors are immersed in the snowy chill of combat in Korea; the humidity of a grimy outpost in Vietnam; and the tension of a landing boat at Iwo Jima, complete with the feel of waves slapping the bottom and bullets pinging off the hull.
With the start of the summer tourist season, the two facilities are examples of how, in the competition for the public's leisure hours, even the nation's military museums are called on to entertain. And while one institution is abreast of the times, the other seems becalmed in the past.
"You can get whiz-bang at your desktop, so you come to expect it," said Lin Ezell, director of the Marine Corps museum in Quantico. "It's what, for better or worse, this generation of Americans expects when they go out for a good time. They expect to be entertained."
Across the country, experts say, scores of military and history museums are struggling to compete in a world where they must compete as attractions with the latest commercial amusement or theme park.
"Museum professionals no longer think of 'attraction' as a dirty word," Ezell said. "The amusement parks, the Disneys, the Epcots have taken this to a high level of art and science. . . . Now we can very easily use what works and not worry about" what doesn't.
There are about 90 military museums nationwide, according to the American Association of Museums. Those that have changed with the times are enjoying robust visitation.
Since it opened in fall 2006, the $90 million Marine Corps museum has had 800,000 visitors, including 548,875 last year, its first full year in business.
The vast National Museum of the United States Air Force, outside Dayton, Ohio, which continues to undergo expansion, updates and changes in focus, has had annual attendance go from 800,000 people 10 years ago to 1.2 million. "We must be doing something right," senior curator Terry Aitken said.
The museum director, retired Maj. Gen. Charles D. Metcalf, said his visitors are "hungry for history. . . . And that's what we are feeding them."
The Army, which has 24 museums across the country, has been planning and raising money for a flagship national museum at Fort Belvoir.
Then there's the Navy. Its museum on the fortresslike grounds of the Navy Yard drew just more than 181,000 visitors last year, down from 284,000 the year before and 211,000 in 2005.
Part of the problem is its location: on an active base.
Security is tight. Visitors are asked to telephone 24 hours in advance. Then they must stop at the visitor center and present identification to obtain a pass. Those driving a car must show a license, auto registration and proof of insurance.
In contrast, both the Marine Corps museum and the Air Force museum are near busy interstate highways and outside the gates of adjacent military installations. The Army's museum will be similarly situated, said retired Brig. Gen. Creighton Abrams, head of the Army Historical Foundation. "It must be fully accessible to the public," he said.
But the Navy museum is bound to the yard by the ties of tradition. "There has been a museum here at the Washington Navy Yard since the 1850s," noted spokesman Jack A. Green, a museum scholar.
The current museum dates from 1963. The latest major gallery, about World War II, was installed in 1982. A modern, $10 million Cold War gallery is in the works in a separate building, but money still is being raised to finish it.
The main museum "is a more traditional type of museum," Green said. "It's artifact-intensive. . . . There's no interactive. There's no real immersion, which is the key operative word in museums now, [where] you immerse yourself" in an exhibit.
Indeed, the museum is heavy with exquisite ship models under glass, gold-framed portraits of admirals and huge naval guns from both world wars.
It has one interactive feature, an outdated keyboard and video screen designed to simulate code-breaking. Yet it also displays the cocked hat, sword, coat and shoes of Adm. Dewey, hero of the Spanish-American War.
Green is aware of the problem.
"How do you get the person who's sitting in their easy chair with their cable remote . . . or at the computer with the Internet . . . into your museum?" he asked.
Artifacts have a certain draw, he said. "But a good museum always tells a story. Traditional military museums will be lines of planes, or lines of tanks, or lines of ship models, stuff like that. Unless you're really into the subject matter, that doesn't really tell you a story."
Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums, notes, however, that although younger museum-goers love gizmos, they also crave authenticity.
"They don't want to stand on a fake battlefield,"They don't want to stand on a fake battlefield,<wbr>" he said. "They want to stand on the real battlefield where soldiers bled and died. They want to see the real . . . submarine . . . the real uniform th
And although the Navy's museum is rich in such things, there has been renewed talk of relocating to a site away from the yard.
"How do we serve our public the best?" asked museum director Kim Nielsen. "Is it to stay here behind a secure fence? Or to make the Navy's heritage more accessible? This is the challenge we're facing."
The latest proposal, suggested this year by the Washington area's National Maritime Heritage Foundation, is for the museum to move to a new waterfront Washington Maritime Center.
"It's a great opportunity for the Navy," said Kevin Traver, director of the foundation. "You can get out and tell your story in a new state-of-the-"It's a great opportunity for the Navy,"
Green, the museum spokesman, said: "We're still just looking at it, but we're looking at it a little more in detail. . . . It's not anywhere near a done deal."
But some change is inevitable.
"At some point in the future, the Navy is going to have to come to the realization that the times are changing," he said. "And we have to, too."
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 25, 2008; C01
The gray paint is chipped on the World War II anti-aircraft gun. The finish is worn on some of the display cases. The crude video and interactive features date to the 1980s.
The exhibits at the National Museum of the United States Navy are housed in a century-old gun factory at the Washington Navy Yard, and many seem as dated as Adm. George Dewey's faded hat and gold-buttoned dress coat in a case on a wall.
But drive 35 miles south to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. There, visitors are immersed in the snowy chill of combat in Korea; the humidity of a grimy outpost in Vietnam; and the tension of a landing boat at Iwo Jima, complete with the feel of waves slapping the bottom and bullets pinging off the hull.
With the start of the summer tourist season, the two facilities are examples of how, in the competition for the public's leisure hours, even the nation's military museums are called on to entertain. And while one institution is abreast of the times, the other seems becalmed in the past.
"You can get whiz-bang at your desktop, so you come to expect it," said Lin Ezell, director of the Marine Corps museum in Quantico. "It's what, for better or worse, this generation of Americans expects when they go out for a good time. They expect to be entertained."
Across the country, experts say, scores of military and history museums are struggling to compete in a world where they must compete as attractions with the latest commercial amusement or theme park.
"Museum professionals no longer think of 'attraction' as a dirty word," Ezell said. "The amusement parks, the Disneys, the Epcots have taken this to a high level of art and science. . . . Now we can very easily use what works and not worry about" what doesn't.
There are about 90 military museums nationwide, according to the American Association of Museums. Those that have changed with the times are enjoying robust visitation.
Since it opened in fall 2006, the $90 million Marine Corps museum has had 800,000 visitors, including 548,875 last year, its first full year in business.
The vast National Museum of the United States Air Force, outside Dayton, Ohio, which continues to undergo expansion, updates and changes in focus, has had annual attendance go from 800,000 people 10 years ago to 1.2 million. "We must be doing something right," senior curator Terry Aitken said.
The museum director, retired Maj. Gen. Charles D. Metcalf, said his visitors are "hungry for history. . . . And that's what we are feeding them."
The Army, which has 24 museums across the country, has been planning and raising money for a flagship national museum at Fort Belvoir.
Then there's the Navy. Its museum on the fortresslike grounds of the Navy Yard drew just more than 181,000 visitors last year, down from 284,000 the year before and 211,000 in 2005.
Part of the problem is its location: on an active base.
Security is tight. Visitors are asked to telephone 24 hours in advance. Then they must stop at the visitor center and present identification to obtain a pass. Those driving a car must show a license, auto registration and proof of insurance.
In contrast, both the Marine Corps museum and the Air Force museum are near busy interstate highways and outside the gates of adjacent military installations. The Army's museum will be similarly situated, said retired Brig. Gen. Creighton Abrams, head of the Army Historical Foundation. "It must be fully accessible to the public," he said.
But the Navy museum is bound to the yard by the ties of tradition. "There has been a museum here at the Washington Navy Yard since the 1850s," noted spokesman Jack A. Green, a museum scholar.
The current museum dates from 1963. The latest major gallery, about World War II, was installed in 1982. A modern, $10 million Cold War gallery is in the works in a separate building, but money still is being raised to finish it.
The main museum "is a more traditional type of museum," Green said. "It's artifact-intensive. . . . There's no interactive. There's no real immersion, which is the key operative word in museums now, [where] you immerse yourself" in an exhibit.
Indeed, the museum is heavy with exquisite ship models under glass, gold-framed portraits of admirals and huge naval guns from both world wars.
It has one interactive feature, an outdated keyboard and video screen designed to simulate code-breaking. Yet it also displays the cocked hat, sword, coat and shoes of Adm. Dewey, hero of the Spanish-American War.
Green is aware of the problem.
"How do you get the person who's sitting in their easy chair with their cable remote . . . or at the computer with the Internet . . . into your museum?" he asked.
Artifacts have a certain draw, he said. "But a good museum always tells a story. Traditional military museums will be lines of planes, or lines of tanks, or lines of ship models, stuff like that. Unless you're really into the subject matter, that doesn't really tell you a story."
Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums, notes, however, that although younger museum-goers love gizmos, they also crave authenticity.
"They don't want to stand on a fake battlefield,"They don't want to stand on a fake battlefield,<wbr>" he said. "They want to stand on the real battlefield where soldiers bled and died. They want to see the real . . . submarine . . . the real uniform th
And although the Navy's museum is rich in such things, there has been renewed talk of relocating to a site away from the yard.
"How do we serve our public the best?" asked museum director Kim Nielsen. "Is it to stay here behind a secure fence? Or to make the Navy's heritage more accessible? This is the challenge we're facing."
The latest proposal, suggested this year by the Washington area's National Maritime Heritage Foundation, is for the museum to move to a new waterfront Washington Maritime Center.
"It's a great opportunity for the Navy," said Kevin Traver, director of the foundation. "You can get out and tell your story in a new state-of-the-"It's a great opportunity for the Navy,"
Green, the museum spokesman, said: "We're still just looking at it, but we're looking at it a little more in detail. . . . It's not anywhere near a done deal."
But some change is inevitable.
"At some point in the future, the Navy is going to have to come to the realization that the times are changing," he said. "And we have to, too."
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